How eight engineers designed the next EV

Lastly, there was a prioritization vote.
What happened?
Range anxiety was the No. 1 factor limiting acceptance, followed closely by "Real Cost/Value,"
"Accessible charging," "Design Attraction," "Reliability." "Unfamiliarity" and "Capacity/Size" were far down the list.

Next step was question #2:

“When thinking of Electric Vehicles (EVs), what specific
design suggestions would you as an engineer, prospective driver, or
both suggest to the GM team?”

Here we got far more individual answers, more than 75 stuck up on the board.

They included:

Low center of gravity

Sun roof

Wheel motors

Coffee maker

Voice controlled operations

More legroom in back

Fully electric

Same range as my gas car

Speed control by traffic sensing

More safety sensors.

These suggestions were grouped into categories, such as ergonomics, cost, automation, energy storage, feel/performance and package options.
Perhaps not surprising, energy storage was by far (3:1) the most
important design consideration, according to our engineering group. Cost
was a distant second, followed closely by automation.

What impressed me the most was the fact that the top two
priorities in answer to question #2 were in exact alignment with the top
two identified problems limiting EV acceptance.

Now, the next step is see how these track with what Andy Farah,
the chief Volt engineer, and his team at GM are thinking about for their
vehicle's future.